Shutter mechanism for packing machine

ABSTRACT

The disclosed shutter mechanism comprises a pair of shutter wings each divided into upper and lower wings linked to each other so as to be operated together into open and close positions. The upper wing has a cam follower portion always in contact with a roller which moves in up and down directions together with the upper conveyor, thereby to operate the shutter wings in direct accordance with the up and down movements of the upper conveyor.

United States Patent 1 [451 Apr. 9, 1974 Makishima SHUTTER MECHANISM FOR PACKING MACHINE [75] Inventor: Yoshinao Makishima, Kawasaki,

Japan [73] Assignee: Ikegai Takko Kabushiki Kaisha, Tokyo, Japan [22] Filed: Sept. 17, I971 [21] Appl No; 181,536

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 28, 1970 Japan 45-95210 [52] U.S. Cl 100/151, 100/49, 425/371 [51] Int. Cl 1330b 5/06, B30b 15/14 [58] Field of Search 100/43, 49, 144, 151-153, 100/173, 215, 218, 222, 295; 425/371, 372

[56] References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,526,078 9/1970 Dye..; .L 100/151 Primary Examiner-John W. Huckert Assistant Examiner-Stuart S. Levy Attorney, Agent, or FirmWenderoth, Lind & Ponack 57 ABSTRACT 3 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures I nn c100 l 1 10b I lzbtbls Pmmma 9:914 Y 3,802,338

FIG. 2

YOSH INAO MAK ISH IMA INVENTOR UJJMAQMM, firm/a2 ATTORNEY 5 1 SHUTTER MECHANISM FOR PACKING MACHINE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to a shutter mechanism for a packing machine for packing compressible material.

2. Description of the Prior Art There has been proposed an automatic packing machine in which compressible material such as a pile of news papers is packed while the pile is pressed between a pair of upper and lower conveyors to decrease the volume of the material to be packed as compact as possible. In such a packing machine, the material to be packed is conveyed by the lower conveyor to a predetermined position at which the packing and pressing operations are performed. When the material is brought into the predetermined position, the material abuts against shutter wings, which are useful for eliminating the variation in the stop position of the material and for preventing forward falling of the material. Then the conveyor immediately stops at that position and the material to be packed is pressed due to the downward movement of the upper conveyor, and the shutter wings open in response to the downward movement of the upper conveyor. Therefore, the now packed material can leave the packing machine without being obstructed by the shutter wings.

in the conventional packing machine of the type described above, means for opening and closing the shutter wings has been of complex structure. For example, the shutter wings have had to be driven by a special driving device which may be operated by a shutter operating signal supplied from a signal generator and received by a signal receiver. Therefore, the number of processes necessary for the packing operation increases by the number of operations necessary for driving the shutter mechanism. In addition, for the purpose of eliminating erroneous operations, the packing machine has had to additionally involve means for detecting the completion of the packing operation. These additional components cause the entire arrangement of the packing machine to be of complex structure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a shutter mechanism for a packing machine free from the above-mentioned. disadvantages of the conventional shutter mechanism.

It is another object of the invention to provide a shutter mechanism for a packing machine which is simple in structure and free from the fear of erroneous operations.

It is still another object of the invention to provide a shutter mechanism for a packing machine useful in shortening the entire operation time of the machine foreach packing operation.

In order to achieve these objectives, the shutter mechanism for a packing machine of the present invention comprises a link mechanism capable of opening and closing the shutter wings in response to the up and down movements of the upper press conveyor, the shutter wings being divided into an upper and lower portions to balance the weights of the shutter wings each pivoted in an unbalanced state. The link mechanism also connects both the upper and lower shutter wings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The invention will become more readily apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view illustrating the shutter mechanism of the present invention as being combined with a packing machine, the shutter mechanism being in its closed state; and

FIG. 2 is a view similar to FIG. 1 but illustrating the open position of the shutter mechanism.

Throughout the figures the same reference numerals designate identical or corresponding components.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to FIG. 1, wherein the shutter mechanism of the present invention is illustrated as being combined with an automatic packing machine, it is seen that upper and lower conveyors 1 and 2 are disposed on an upper and bottom frame members 3 and 4 by means of support members 5 and 6 respectively. The lower conveyor 2, which is driven in the direction of from rear to front of the plane of the Figure, conveys a compressible material 7' such as a number of piled news papers to a predetermined position at which the pressing and packing operations are performed. The upper conveyor 1, which is mounted on the support member 5, is supported by any suitable mechanism such as a hydraulic cylinder 8 so as to be able to move up and down. It is to be noted that the upper support member 5 is provided at its right and left lower ends parallel to the direction of the conveyor movement with a pair of cam drive rollers 9 for the purpose which will become apparent later.

The pile to be packed and conveyed by the lower conveyor 2 is covered by a sheet of packing material by any suitable means (not illustrated) and abuts against the shutter means of the present invention generally designated by the reference numeral 10. Then the lower conveyor 2 is caused to stop as a result of a sensing means located adjacent the shutter means which senses that the pile is positioned at the shutter means. This sensing meanscan be any well-known means such as a limit switch or a photo-electric cell as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,599,693 and 3,515,056. The operation could, of course, also be manually controlled. Similarly, and at the same time, the hydraulic cylinder 8 is operated by any suitable means to actuate its piston rod connected to the support member 5, thereby to move the conveyor 1 and the pair of rollers 9 disposed on the lower sides of the support member 5 downward.

Each of the shutter wings 10 is composed of two shutter wings 10a and 10b, each of which comprises an inner end portion, an intermediate portion and an outer end portion. Each of the upper shutter wings 10a is pivoted at its intermediate portion to a strut 11 extending between both the upperand lower frame members 3 and 4 by a pivot pin 12a and has an inwardly articulated recessed cam portion 13 formed between the inner end of the wing and the pivot pin 12a. Each of the lower shutter wings 10b is pivoted at its outer end portion to the strut 11 by a pivot pin 12!). The outer end portion of the upper shutter wing 10a and the intermediate portion of the lower shutter wing 10b are linked by a link members 14 through pins 15a and 15b.

Therefore, the upper and lower wings each pivoted in an unbalanced state are balanced in weight as a whole. The pin 15a which is on the outer end portion of the shutter wing a is also provided with a tension spring 16, the other end of which is secured to the lower frame member 2 of the packing machine through a stationary member 17.

As previously described, when the pile to be packed abuts against the shutter wings, the lower conveyor stops to place the pile at the predetermined position and the upper conveyor moves downward due to the operation of the hydraulic cylinder. This downward movement of the upper conveyor causes the rollers arranged on the lower portion of the support member to depress the upper shutter wings along its inwardly articulated recessed portion. Then the upper shutter wing turns about the upper pin 12a in the direction shown by arrows 18 against the action of the tension spring 16. Since the upper shutter wing 10a is linked to the lower shutter wing 10b by means of the link member 14 and pins 150 and 15b in such the relationship as previously described, the turn of the upper shutter wing 10a causes the lower shutter wing 10b to rotate about the pivot pin 12b in the direction of the arrows 19, thereby to put both the upper and lower shutter wings into their open positions as illustrated in FIG. 2, wherein the pile to be packed is pressed into a compact size convenient for packing and permitted to pass through the shutters.

After the packing operation has been completed, the pile is conveyed out from the packing machine by the operation of both the conveyors l and 2. In this case it is easily understood that the shutter wings do not prevent the movement of the now packed pile because they remain in open positions due to the upper support member 5 in the lowermost position as illustrated in FIG. 2.

Thereafter, the hydraulic cylinder 8 operates to lift up the upper conveyor from its lowermost position to its uppermost position. This operation can also be initiated by the above described sensing means which will now sense the absence of the pile. As the upper conveyor 1 moves upward, the shutter wings 10 turn to their original position illustrated in FIG. 1 due to the action of the tension spring 16 and the link member 14. Thus, when the upper conveyor returns to its original position, the shutter wings 10 also return to their original positions as shown in FIG. 1 for receiving another pile to be packed.

As has heretofore been described, the closure and opening of the shutter wings of the present invention directly follow the upward and downward movements of the upper conveyor. Therefore, the open and close operations of the shutter wings are performed in precise accordance with the cycle of packing operation of the packing machine, eliminating any causes of erroneous operation. In addition, the shutter mechanism of the present invention is of simple construction, also eliminating erroneous operations.

What I claim is:

l. A shutter mechanism for a packing machine having a lower conveyor for conveying a material to be packed and an upper conveyor movable to press the material to be packed therebetween comprising a pair of shutter wings operable into opened and closed positions, each of said pair being composed of an upper and lower shutter wing, means linking said upper and lower shutter wings to each other and means movable together with said movable upper conveyor for cam driving said pair of shutter wings to thereby operate said pair of shutter wings in response to the movement of said upper conveyor.

2. A shutter mechanism for a packing machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of said upper shutter wings has an inner end portion projecting into the path of movement of the material to be packed, an intermediate portion pivoted to a stationary portion of the packing machine and an outer end portion, each of said lower shutter wings having an inner end portion projecting into the path of movement of the material to be packed, an intermediate portion connected by said link means to said outer end portions of said upper shutter wings, and an outer end portion pivoted to said stationary portion of the packing machine, spring means for normally maintaining said pair of shutter wings in their closed position, and each of said upper shutter wings having formed thereon an inwardly articulated recessed portion which serves as a cam follower in cooperation with said cam driving means, whereby the pair of shutter wings are opened when the upper conveyor is brought to its lowermost position.

3. A shutter mechanism for a packing machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein said cam driving means comprises roller means. 

1. A shutter mechanism for a packing machine having a lower conveyor for conveying a material to be packed and an upper conveyor movable to press the material to be packed therebetween comprising a pair of shutter wings operable into opened and closed positions, each of said pair being composed of an upper and lower shutter wing, means linking said upper and lower shutter wings to each other and means movable together with said movable upper conveyor for cam driving said pair of shutter wings to thereby operate said pair of shutter wings in response to the movement of said upper conveyor.
 2. A shutter mechanism for a packing machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of said upper shutter wings has an inner end portion projecting into the path of movement of the material to be packed, an intermediate portion pivoted to a stationary portion of the packing machine and an outer end portion, each of said lower shutter wings having an inner end portion projecting into the path of movement of the material to be packed, an intermediate portion connected by said link means to said outer end portions of said upper shutter wings, and an outer end portion pivoted to said stationary portion of the packing machine, spring means for normally maintaining said pair of shutter wings in their closed position, and each of said upper shutter wings having formed thereon an inwardly articulated recessed portion which serves as a cam follower in cooperation with said cam driving means, whereby the pair of shutter wings are opened when the upper Conveyor is brought to its lowermost position.
 3. A shutter mechanism for a packing machine as claimed in claim 2 wherein said cam driving means comprises roller means. 